Employers as customers

20 Aug Employers as customers

That could well be the response of staff receiving another top-down communication or newsletter from their employers. Information is knocked together and whacked out. And there’s no purpose to the content – just random stuff, one-way perspectives. Delete.

Try treating staff like customers or prospects. Use cutting edge marketing, communications, social mediaand brand, yes brand techniques to reach and connect with your staff. The internal communications process must become more considered, more conversational, more spontaneous and more interactive.

And more relevant.

You may well be communicating to a workforce scattered around the country, with some in the factory not having access to the website. Age will have an impact too. Twitter will be great for a certain segment, but you’ll risk missing many.

Just because the CEO’s name is on the communication does not guarantee readership and involvement. Staff are like everybody else. Time-pressured, with cut-backs taking their toll on both time and mood. And they have plenty else to read at the tip of their fingers. Crumbs, they’d rather comment on a friend’s Facebook posting than read another ill-considered internal newsletter.

In order to really reach and connect with staff today, you need all the skills that you’d need to reach a consumer. To “reach”, you’ll need to know what technology is available and appropriate. Today, I’d suggest that in the same way one needs integrated external campaigns, the same is required for internal communication. But reaching them is one thing – the challenge is “connecting”. Here, one needs to source those stories that will help the company to align staff to brand values, company culture, strategic objectives, financial imperatives and organisational behaviour.

The truth is that staff should care about what you share with them. Similarly, employers have a duty to recognise that times have changed and the fight for the minds of their staff is as intense as the battle for the minds of customers.